HarperCollins Atlas of Bible History

ONE

SETTING THE SCENE

The land

Palestine has always been something of a gateway. Geographically, it serves as a land-bridge between Asia and Africa; historically, it was an important route between the two centers of ancient civilization: Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The land has a basic relief of rounded mountains and incised valleys, which have determined the pattern of major roads. Seen from the west, Palestine consists of a coastal plain, a lowland, and two lines of mountains, divided by the great rift that runs southward from Syria to the source of the African river Zambezi.

The river Jordan runs through the Palestinian section of this rift. Indeed, the Jordan depression is a unique feature of the physical geography of Palestine. The point where the river enters the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the land surface of the Earth, some 393m (1280 ft) below sea level. Appropriately, the name Jordan means the descender.

Palestine lies in a subtropical zone, with a long dry summer and a short rainy season in winter. Precipitation varies greatly. The northern mountains of Carmel, Upper Galilee and northern Samaria were once covered with dense woodland sustained by the fair amount of rain. Now, however, only a narrow strip along the Mediterranean enjoys a relatively large amount of rainfall. Desert surrounds Palestine on the south and east.

The geography of the country is directly related to the quality of the soil (map right). Palestine’s most fertile soil derives from the Cenomanian limestone, which, with adequate rainfall, breaks down into the rich terra rossa. The Senonian chalk is easily eroded and is infertile. Numbers indicate elevations in feet.

The geology of the land has had a huge impact on human activities. The hard limestone in the hills of Palestine weathers into a rich red-brown soil called terra rossa, ideal for farming. However, the soft limestone (the intermediate Senonian rock) tends to erode into a gray infertile soil. Building stone was quarried from the limestone rocks of Cenomanian, Turonian, and Eocene formations. Quarries have been found at Megiddo, Samaria, and Ramat Rahel in Iron Age contexts. Basalt exists in eastern Galilee and in the Golan; since prehistoric times, it has been the basic material for making querns and mortars.

Palestine is not very rich in mineral resources. A thick layer of red Nubian sandstone, containing deposits of copper, is known from southern Transjordan and around the river Jabbok; iron is mined in the mountains of Transjordan. Salt is obtained from the Mediterranean or from the Dead Sea.

Agriculture

The economy of Palestine has generally been pastoral-agrarian in character. Some plant species have migrated from as far away as Western Europe, Central Asia, and Central Africa. Agriculture has traditionally been based on grain, wine, and olive oil. Barley was usually grown in areas of poor soil and limited precipitation. Supplementing these were figs, pomegranates, dates, and almonds. Terraces were frequently built in serried fashion on the slopes of hills for farming. Easy access between fields and the marketplaces was vital, and in many areas of Palestine a complex network of regional and rural roads was established.

Major climatic and floral zones in Palestine (map right). Lines show average yearly rainfall in inches.

The great variety of soil and rainfall makes for a diversity of flora. In the narrow belt of land known as the Mediterranean zone, the climate is characterized by a short, wet winter with an annual total rainfall of between 15.5 and 47.25 in. The zone originally supported evergreen woodlands and high maquis vegetation, but this has now been destroyed. The typical trees are the Aleppo pine, the common oak, the Palestine terebinth, the laurel, the carob, and the mastic terebinth.

Loess or thin calcareous soils exist in the Irano-Turanian zone. The climate is characterized by a low rainfall with an annual total ranging between 7.5 and 11.5 in. Since this is the absolute limit for dry-farming, only sparse trees and shrubs are to be found, notably the lotus jujube and the Atlantic terebinth.

The Saharo-Arabian zone has the poorest flora in the Levant. The rainfall does not exceed 7.5 in and can be much less. The soils are not conducive to plant growth, but thorny acacias of African-savannah origin grow in the wadi beds and survive on the water of the occasional flash flood.

Fauna

The region supports a great variety of animals including over 100 species of mammals and almost 500 species of birds. The Bible refers to many different wild animals, including the lion, tiger, bear, antelope, wild ox, Mesopotamian fallow deer, ostrich, crocodile, and hippopotamus. Some of these - such as the lion, ostrich, and bear - are no longer found in the region, mainly due to intensive hunting. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the crocodile, which originally inhabited the river Jordan, could still be seen in Nahal Tanninim (the crocodile river) in the coastal plain of Palestine. The ibex and hyrax, mentioned in the Bible as living in the high hills (Ps 104.18), are common today in a number of rocky locations in Sinai and Negeb and at En-gedi near the Dead Sea. In nearby Nahal Mishmar, objects decorated with ibex horns were found in the bronze hoard dating back to the Chalcolithic period. The Sinai leopard referred to in a number of biblical passages is critically endangered, if not already extinct. Ancient representations of the leopard have come to light on a Neolithic wall painting in Anatolia, in stone constructions in the desert floor next to a structure of the late 6th millennium BC at Biqat Uvda in southern Palestine, and in ancient wall carvings in Sinai (Wadi Abu-Jada).

Palestine not only forms a bridge between Egypt and Arabia to the south and Anatolia and Mesopotamia to the north and east, but is also at the end of sea routes across the Mediterranean and up the Gulf of Suez (map right).

Domesticated animals are also frequently mentioned in the Bible. Among them are horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, and cattle. Insects too, such as fleas, mosquitoes, and locusts, feature in biblical passages.

Agriculture and the Bible

The importance of agriculture is reflected throughout the Bible. Two out of the three major Israelite festivals were connected with agriculture: the Feast of Weeks, with the end of the grain harvest and the arrival of the first fruits, and the Feast of Booths, which celebrated the completion of the fruit harvest. (The date of Passover may also have been linked with the start of the grain harvest.)

Similarly, the Bible abounds in agricultural imagery. In the later chapters of Isaiah, the renewal of the land is couched in agricultural terms; Jesus’ teaching often featured farms, vineyards, and agricultural laborers, while poems such as the Song of Solomon are rich in agricultural metaphors.

Most significantly, God’s blessing could be measured by the success of the harvest, while events such as droughts or plagues of locusts (Joel 1:2-4) were seen as signs of his displeasure.

The contours of the land obviously had their effect on travel (map below). The map shows major lines of communication in biblical times, the biblical names for the major highways, and the position of the passes through high ground. These roads were important both for troop movements and for trade and commerce.

Mapping Biblical narratives

At first sight, the account of the travels of the ark (1 Sam 4.1-7.2) is the ideal subject for a map. Yet the complexities of the account and the difficulty of identifying the site illustrate some of the problems inherent in mapping Biblical narratives.

It begins with the ark at Shiloh in the charge of Eli and his two ill-behaved sons (1 Sam 8.1-3). Then the ark is taken to Aphek and Ebenezer, where the Philistines rout the Israelites, capture the ark, and take it to Ashdod, one of their chief cities. At Ashdod the ark brings trouble upon the Philistines - the statue of their god Dagon collapses before it and the people of Ashdod are struck by a plague. So they transfer it to Ekron, another Philistine city, with similar results. Finally, in desperation, the Philistines place the ark on a cart yoked to two cows who pull it to Beth-shemesh, where it is taken into custody by Levites. They take it to the house of Abinadab at Gibeah (or the hill) near Kiriath-jearim. There it remains until David transfers it to Jerusalem.

It seems pretty clear. But there are difficulties. For a start, it’s not certain where Ebenezer is, let alone the hill near Kiriath-jearim. Secondly, although the narrative implies the ark stayed at Kiriath-jearim for 20 years (1 Sam 7.2), it must have been there for longer, if we are to fit it in to the accepted chronology. Was it housed elsewhere during that time?

The most fundamental problem in mapping Bible narratives is simply identifying the locations. The books of the Bible refer to numerous places that, although well known to the ancient Israelites, have become lost to us. The locations of the major cities of ancient Palestine can be established with a reasonable degree of certainty, but, when it comes to less-prominent villages and landmarks, there is far less certainty. The story of Saul’s search for his father’s asses, for example, describes how he passes through the hill country of Ephraim, the lands of Shalishah, Shaalim, and Benjamin and eventually reaches the land of Zuph (1 Sam 9.4). Except for the references to Benjamin and Ephraim, none of the other lands can be located with any confidence.

This lack of certainty can strike even sites of major significance: in modern scholarship, at least a dozen different sites have been proposed for Mount Sinai. Nor is it restricted to Old Testament sites: the village of Emmaus (Luke 24.13-35) has also never been definitely identified.

The route of the ark of the covenant from Shiloh, where it was in possession of the old priest Eli, to the Philistine cities and its return to the house of Adinadad at Gibeah near Kiriath-jearim (map left). The account in 1 Samuel 4-7 though seemingly straightforward, presents both geographical and chronological difficulties.

The problems are further exacerbated by difficulties with translating the manuscripts, or where there are variant route of the ark readings. For example, 2 Samuel 24.5-7 describes the area covered by officials during the census conducted by David. Yet these verses are difficult to untangle, and it is unclear whether some of the words should be translated as proper names, such as Tahtim Hodshi and Dan Jaan (NIV).

Finally, there is the issue of dealing with stories where there are conflicts of opinion over the historicity. In the ark narrative, different scholars would argue over what is history and what is legend.

The net result of all this is that almost all Bible maps are hypothetical to some degree, reflecting not only the best guesses as to location, but also a degree of textual interpretation, and even the mapmaker’s view on the historicity of the narrative.

The journey of Edward Robinson

In 1838, and again in 1852, Edward Robinson, an American Bible scholar, traveled through Palestine and the Sinai recording the names of towns and villages. Robinson believed that the ancient Hebrew names could still be heard in the modern names by which villagers identified their homes. For example, in the name of Anata he could hear Anathoth, the home of Jeremiah; er-Ram was Ramah; Jeba was probably the site of Geba; Mukhmas was Michmash, the place of Jonathan’s victory over the Philistines; Beitin, the site of Bethel.

Robinson’s studies, and the development of rules for comparing ancient Hebrew geographical terminology with modern Arabic, helped to establish biblical geography as a serious, academic pursuit.

The description of Saul’s search for his father’s asses found in 1 Samuel 9.10 located the area around Ephraim and Benjamin and mentions several familiar cities (map right). However, the three lands of the Shalishah, Shaalim, and Zuph cannot be located on the map, since they are not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

The route taken on May 4-5 1838, by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith over the area immediately north of Jerusalem (map above right).

Historical geography and archaeology

Numerous pilgrims, travelers, and explorers have sought to unearth the past of the lands of the Bible, beginning, perhaps, with Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, and her claim to have discovered remnants of the cross in the 4th century. However, true archaeological research in Palestine and the near East really dates back only to the nineteenth century.

Surveys

The earliest surveys were made by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in 1838 and 1852 to identify places mentioned in the Bible. During the years 1872-1877, a team of Royal Engineers of the British Army, sponsored by the Palestinian Exploration Fund, compiled the Survey of Western Palestine, a 26-sheet set of maps covering the entire country.

In more recent times, surveys have widened their focus to look also at the advantages offered by a particular location. Was the spot favorable for defense, subsistence, trade, and transport? Did it have a good water supply? Was it close to other settlements connected by bonds of kinship or religion? Answers to these and other questions have prompted many careful surveys of large areas.

Excavation

Scientific excavations began in 1890 with Sir Flinders Petrie’s stratigraphic excavations at Tell el-Hesi. He demonstrated that the ancient mound, or tell, was composed of layers of debris deposited by successive occupations, often over long periods of time. In general, it could be assumed that, unless the deposits had been disturbed (for example, by earthquakes), the upper layer was later in time than the lower. Layers containing burnt debris and broken artifacts may be the result of warfare or disaster in the region, and might therefore be datable according to other historical records. The principle of stratigraphy established in 1890 is still the basic practice of modern archaeology.

The horizontal bird’s-eye view of the superimposed architectural remains uncovered by archaeologists at T. Arad in the Negeb desert. The architectectural remains shown in this plan represent different stages of the Iron Age fortress (c. 120-600 BC) with a square tower of the Hellenistic date built above earlier remains (plan below).

The change in settlement patterns has been charted for the sites of the coastal plain for the three periods of occupation: Early Bronze II-III (c. 2850-2350 BC), Middle Bronze IIA (c. 2000-1750 BC), and Middle Bronze IIB (c. 1750-1550 BC) (map right). The bar charts show comparisons of settlements for each of these periods for three different areas - the Central Mountains, the Middle and Lower Jordan Valley, and the coastal plain.

Excavation reveals, in general, four distinct elements: architecture (buildings, walls, etc.), artifacts (tools, pots, and other objects), various kinds of deposit (ashes, building debris, etc.), and floors (beaten earth, paving stones, street surfaces, etc.). Architecture and artifacts are normally straightforward to identify, but distinguishing layers of deposits from the floor level requires careful judgment.

Pottery and dating

The most common artifact found in excavations is the ceramic vessel, or potsherds from it. Because pots were fragile, they would often break; therefore, they had to be replaced. Styles were often changed as potters sought to attract buyers, and these stylistic shifts, with such wide differences in form and decoration, provide various kinds of information about ancient life. One is the dating of the stratum in which they were found. Since changes in styles were gradual and some survived longer than others, a quantitative record of the number of sherds of a type provides an accurate picture of change from one period to another.

Such changes can be observed in other objects as well. Tools, weapons, jewelery, and ivory and bone carvings are useful in charting changes through time and serve to strengthen chronological conclusions based on pottery types. More precise means for dating are provided by coins of a known mint, scarabs, inscriptions, and datable imported goods from neighboring civilizations. Destructions wrought by invaders such as Shishak, Sennacherib, or Nebuchadnezzar, or others for whom written records are available, are useful in pinpointing dates for artifacts found in the ruins, yet even here there is debate among scholars over identification of a particular destruction with a specific event mentioned in the Bible or other texts.

Use of science in archaeology

Science has provided new means for surveying sites and dating objects. Techniques such as aerial surveys and archaeological geophysics can be used to reveal hidden structures below the ground. Indeed, archaeological field work is no longer restricted to the land. Wrecks of ancient ships, filled with valuable cargo, have documented ancient trade and revealed the construction methods. Underwater surveys can use geophysical or other remote-sensing devices.

A vertical view of the layers of Tel Mikhal, revealing a system of superimposed earthen ramparts dating from the Middle Bronze Age IIB (c. 1750-1200 BC) (chart left). Each deposit uncovered in the excavation was designated separately according to its color and composition. The thick black lines represent the upper surfaces of the various archaeological features of a period. The broken lines represent the hypothetical continuation of these archaeological features.

Radiocarbon and tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) are now commonplace in dating sites and objects (although the lack of an established continuous sequence in Palestinian archaeology limits the use of the latter). Thermoluminescence can determine how much time has elapsed since the original firing of the pottery. Metal analysis can identify trace elements within alloys, revealing information about ore deposits and even trading activity.

Professionals with specific expertise are increasingly used in archaeology. Osteoarchaeologists study animal bones and can tell us much about the development of domestic animals and the fauna of a region. Archaeobotanists and palynologists study plant life and pollen from the soil, throwing valuable light on the vegetation of a region or of a particular period of occupation at a site.

Excavations have become smaller in terms of the size of the site being excavated, but more intensive in